Last week of April in review

Highlights of the Week
Last Sunday there was a wonderful meeting of the area Conservative synagogue in Baltimore to honor Young Leaders. Kehilat Shalom honored Karen Klemow who has run our Wine Tasting Program for several years and has chaired our CE21 Educational Experiment for the past 2 years. It was wonderful to thank her for all her intelligence, talent to engage others, and hard work. The centerpiece of the evening was a panel discussion about the future of prayer/worship in synagogue communities. The questions were, of course, better than the answers. How do we make worship exciting, engaging, accessible and inspiring? What works for one person doesn't work for the next. The one service 'fits all model' is dysfunctional for too many in the community. I'm sure I'll write another time on my ideas and some directions we'll be taking short-term and long-term.
Monday I took my first day-off in weeks.
Tuesday I introduced an interesting project to the Upper School (8-12 Grades). There is a legal case on-going in Georgia between the State and the American Civil Liberties Union about the Kosher law in Georgia. The law requires food sold as kosher to meet "Orthodox Hebrew religious rules and requirements." One of my Conservative colleagues who does kosher supervision would be breaking the law in his work since he's not Orthodox. Many state have laws to guard against fraudulent kosher stores. Yet, in general, we believe in separation of Church and State that the government should not get involved in matters of religion. Should the government in the public interest impose one religious standard on everyone? The students are taking the opposite sides of the case and will debate next week in front of a lawyer - cool!
Both Wednesday and Thursday, not the highlight but, the focus of the day was counseling people experiencing illness in their families. There are no black and white answers on dealing will infirmity and the challenges of care-giving. Several things stand out in both conversations. 1) Make sure that your house is in order: financially, physically, spiritually - because no one knows for sure what tomorrow may bring. 2) Medicine is a "artsy" science - our bodies are so complex, each of us is different - that absolute diagnoses and prognoses are not possible. Reading good information, asking the right questions, listening carefully, and then making the best decision possible with our loved ones is sometimes all we can do. 3) There is a spiritual side to sickness beside the spiritual. We know this but sometimes forget. Sometimes there is no cure. But with support, kindness, communication, meditation and love - there can always be spiritual healing. We can be sick, but we can be surrounded by the love of friends and family ... and God
Thursday Night: the CE21 Task-force met. We starting looking at the trends of our congregational conversations. Seven conversations with nearly 70 people were held in February and March. We're not done looking at the data - but there are already some interesting insights about where our community is, what & where they want to do, and from there we should be able to do some creative, experiential activities to meet the needs and dreams of our community.
Today: I've been getting ready for honoring our Educational Directors. We're celebrating Amy & Mindy with the participation of students in the service, the presentation of gifts from the classes, and a thank you from the School Board. It promises to be a lovely service and evening.
Shabbat Shalom.